Nunes re­tains UFC ti­tle in close de­ci­sion

Brazil­ian brawler Amanda Nunes played a tac­ti­cal game Satur­day night to de­feat chal­lenger Valentina Shevchenko by split de­ci­sion and re­tain her ban­tamweight ti­tle, at UFC 215 at Rogers Place.

“I wanted to show the world I’m here to stay,’’ Nunes later told re­porters.

The judges scored it 47-48, 48-47, 48-47 to run Nunes’ record to 15-4.

It was a care­ful fight with many sin­gle shots and few ex­tended skir­mishes un­til Nunes took Shevchenko to the can­vas in the fifth round.

The fans of­ten booed and chanted “Fight, fight fight!”

Nunes later told re­porters her strat­egy was to go the full five rounds and wear Shevchenko down and then strike.

“I know the crowd wants to see a knock­out ... but tonight this fight was for me, to go five rounds and prove I’m the best. I’m here to stay. I’m here for a rea­son,’’ she said.

MaiN card

In a bout with a po­ten­tial ti­tle shot on the line, for­mer light­weight cham­pion Rafael Dos An­jos sub­mit­ted sixth-ranked Neil Magny with an arm-tri­an­gle choke at 3:43 of the first round of their bout.